📖 Meaning
To laugh while covering one's mouth, typically to suppress sound and avoid appearing impolite. It depicts restrained, often covert amusement, sometimes tinged with mild embarrassment or shyness at another's remark or behavior.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom traces back to the Jin dynasty, first appearing in Tao Yuanming's biographical work '晋故征西大将军长史孟府君传' (Biography of Lord Meng, Grand Historian to the General Who Conquers the West). In the original scene, the character Liang laughs while covering his mouth with a deer-tail whisk (麈尾), a refined gesture of restrained amusement considered proper in scholarly company. The phrase was later adopted as a stock expression in classical literature, appearing for instance in Feng Menglong's Ming-dynasty novel '东周列国志' to portray polite, hushed laughter at someone's expense.
💡 Example Usage
听到他那滑稽的回答，众人不禁掩口而笑。
Hearing his comical reply, everyone could not help but laugh behind their hands.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 掩口而笑
- Pinyin: yǎn kǒu ér xiào
- Literal Translation: cover, mouth, and, laugh
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4